Prof. Dr. Dr. Hans Joachim Giessmann

Executive Director

Hans Joachim Giessmann is Executive Director at the Berghof Foundation. Prior to his current position, he was the Director of Berghof Conflict Research.

Before coming to Berghof in 2008, he was the deputy director of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, where he is still affiliated as a professor with the university’s faculty for Social Science. He is also on the Board of Directors for the European Master Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice, Italy.

From 2009 until 2014 he was a member of the Global Agenda Council on “Terrorism” at the World Economic Forum, serving as chair of this body 2011 and 2012. He is also a member of the European Expert Network on Terrorism Issues (EENeT). He is serving his third consecutive term as member of the Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention at the German Federal Foreign Office.

He co-edits the Research Quarterly “Security and Peace” (Nomos) and is a member of the editorial board of the NATO Partnership for Peace Consortium’s journal “Connections”. An experienced author, he has published, edited or co-edited more than 35 books and numerous articles, translated into more than ten languages.

Hans J. Giessmann graduated from the Humboldt University in Berlin in 1978 (Dipl.-Phil.) and holds doctorates in philosophy and in political science. In the past, he has held guest professorships in the universities in Garden City (N.Y.), Wroclaw and Shanghai.